Trying to create subdomain with Apache2

Question

I'm using Ubuntu 10.04 and Apache2.2 on a Linode VPS - I'm trying to create a subdomain sub.mysite.com of mysite.com. I've added this entry to /etc/apache2/sites-enabled:

<VirtualHost *:80>
     ServerAdmin email@gmail.com
     ServerName mysite.com
     ServerAlias sub.mysite.com
     DocumentRoot /srv/www/sub.mysite.com/public_html/
     ErrorLog /srv/www/sub.mysite.com/logs/error.log
     CustomLog /srv/www/sub.mysite.com/logs/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

and this line to /etc/hosts:

127.0.0.1       sub.mysite.com

and created a DNS zone file pointing to sub.mysite.com...

I can successfully ping sub.mysite.com but can't get index.html to load in my browser...

Any ideas?

Answer 1

Since you're using virtual hosts, make sure to put this subdomain container BEFORE your main virtual host container. What ever comes first trumps whatever comes after, so if your file looks like this, it won't work:

<virtualHost *:80>
 {snip}
 ServerAlias *.mysite.com
 DocumentRoot /srv/www/mysite.com/public_html/
 {snip}
</virtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:80>
 {snip}
 ServerAlias sub.mysite.com
 DocumentRoot /srv/www/sub.mysite.com/public_html/
 {snip}
</VirtualHost>

Make sense? You have to flip them, so that the 2nd VirtualHost container in my example is first. If that's not the problem, and you've already done this, then check the Apache error log (actually, that should be your first step, regardless).

Also, make sure file permissions are correct.

Answer 2

Be sure that you have NameVirtualHost *:80 somewhere in your configuration files. Debian adds it in default configuration in the file /etc/apache2/ports.conf (I guess that Ubuntu do the same). Then debug your vhost configuration with apache2ctl -S as root, it will give you a list of correctly configured virtual hosts. The output should be similar to this

VirtualHost configuration:
wildcard NameVirtualHosts and _default_ servers:
*:80                   is a NameVirtualHost
         default server usually-default-hostname (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default:1)
         port 80 namevhost sub.mysite.com (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/your-config:1)

If your vhost is not listed here that's why you can't browse it (ensure you've reloaded the apache configuration with /etc/init.d/apache2 reload before browsing).

See here for full instructions to setup vhosts in apache under Debian/Ubuntu